Nocturne 1928 - 1949

This black and white woodcut by Helen West Heller seems to have emerged out of a dream. Imagine the artist using her tools to make the cut marks, and the labor of it. I see bold expressive shapes, like an allegorical scene unfolding under the night sky. There's a human figure in a desperate stance. A creature from the underworld? A celestial being? To its right is a man, in a similar pose, mirroring the first. The black and white cuts are so evocative; I can almost feel the cool night air, the tension in the figures' bodies, and the weight of the mountains in the background. The mountains are covered in marks like so many stitches, so the landscape looks like it's been pieced together out of different planes. Look at the sky! It's like an illuminated manuscript, or a painting by Hilma af Klint, where abstract forms meet human drama. It makes me think about how artists are always in conversation with each other, even across time. Heller is having her say, and we’re lucky to be listening in.